Donald Trump Now Owns the Republicans

From a Financial Times editorial:

“Nine months ago, there was still some doubt whether the US Republicans were Donald Trump’s personal possession. Glenn Youngkin had just won the Virginia governorship while keeping some distance from the twice-impeached former president. Here was, if not a brave soul, then an electoral model for non-populist conservatives to follow.”

How naive that doubt now seems. Trump-endorsed candidates are thriving in the primaries for the midterm elections. Those who take a stand against him are not. The rout of the Republican lawmaker Liz Cheney in Wyoming this month was retribution for her role in the probe into last year’s siege of the US Capitol. About three-quarters of Republican voters deny that Joe Biden is the legitimately elected US president. Subscribers to the Big Lie include people attaining positions in the election bureaucracy of Arizona and other important states. Trump, if he runs again in 2024, will count on their chicanery.”

“The decay of the GOP is existential for the republic.”